more changes!

Well, my cousin Joel actually emailed me last week about my silence in this space.  It's true.  My posts have been few and far between lately.  I'll try to give a bulleted synopsis of what has been happening in life.

• The first thing I will mention here is that God has blessed me tremendously by allowing me to meet Trent.   We have been officially dating now for 3 weeks.  We have some mutual friends, Abby and Christian, who introduced us...which turned into a few weeks of emailing, a few weeks of phoning and skyping, and a visit to Atlanta (Trent lives in Indiana).  I'm so incredibly thankful.   When friends and family ask about him, I tell them that he is a high school spanish teacher, he lives in Indiana, and, most importantly, he loves God a LOT.    There is a small handful of people on this earth who make me want to love Jesus more.  Trent is one of those people.

• I went to Disney World for a week with my Dad, ALL my sisters, and my brother in law!  It was fantastic just hanging out with everyone for the whole week.   It was such a treat.  Disney world was the happiest place on earth, but only because they were there....*delilah moment*

                     My sisters and I took to the frequent practice of hugging one another, saying with appropriate (intentional) speech impediments, "seeeeesturrrrrrs."

• The day after we got back, our dear friend Sarah came for a visit!  I just adore this girl!

• My dad closed on a house this week!  He moved in today, right next door to my good friend from Georgia Tech, Lance!    It's so good to see my Dad settle somewhere for awhile.

• This is not necessarily a 'happening,' per se, but it is something that God revealed to me a few weeks ago while driving- while the Bible describes the placement of anything in the place of God, or a functional savior, as idolotry, if God is in his rightful place in our lives, we cannot love Him too much, worship Him too much, adore Him too much, cling to Him too much.   He is worthy of all of it.  Let us learn to worship and love Him well, for no matter the stage in life (single, married, college, high school, retired, empty nesters, parents, etc), as believers in Christ, we will always be worshipers first and foremost.  This is where life (the abundant kind- John 10:10) is found.

• I'll be back on Monday with a list for 52 lists in 52 weeks!  I have fallen off the wagon a bit!

• Also, if you're reading this and you used to procrastinate, can you tell me your secret?  I want to rid myself of this terrible habit

"Bueno by any other name would taste as bueno."

So if you're from the south-midwest, you're probably familiar with Taco Bueno.  How could you go wrong with a name like that?  Yesterday on the way home, we stopped at what was probably the last Taco Bueno we would see.

On Sunday, I ran the OKC Memorial half marathon!  It was a good race.  The best part was the fans (i.e. my family!), followed by the flat course.  OKC was bursting with pride, as the Thunder (NBA team) had just won the past 2 playoff games against the Lakers! 

Unfortunately, both my ankles were unhappy with me before the race, and running 13.1 miles did not exactly suit their fancy.  I've been hobbling around since Sunday, hoping that a 3-week running hiatus will do my body some good!

It was oh-so-good to see and spend time with my family.  On that note, my sister Mallory will be coming to hang out in Atl for almost 2 whole weeks starting May 6! 

:::// EDIT \\\:::
food for thought-

a) theology based on country music.  what would that look like?

b) 'So you also should counsider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.'  (Romans 6:11)   What does 'alive to God' mean?    I'm pretty sure Mr. Merriam and Mr. Webster offer a solid definition of the word alive, but Paul choses to include 'to God' at the end of that.  What does that look like in real life?

i'm bad...

Ok, so remember this? I give you permission to kick me in the shin next time you see me (be gentle, please! bear in mind the subject of the accountability)

Some of my most ardent readers (ha) may recall that I wrote a few weeks ago about taking a wee little trip out to oklahoma at the end of april. I decided last week to go ahead and sign myself up for the dern OKC half marathon. Yes...I know. I had put my foot down. No more half marathons. But seriously, guys. The ING was so fun. It made the training all worth it.

So, April 22nd, after work, I'll be on the road again with Miss Jen (an OK native herself and an OSU cowboy!). It will be epic! It will be soooo good to the faces of my family members!

Easter was yesterday. It was a good morning. Last week I took some extra time to dive into Charles Spurgeon's passion week sermon series (so good!)- here's a little quotey quote.
"...I felt the burden of my sin...but the moment I saw there was nothing whatever for me to do, that Jesus did it long long ago, that all my sins were put on His back and that He suffered as I ought to have suffered, why then my heart had peace with God, peace by beleiving, peace through the precious blood...There is no motive for holiness so great as that which streams from the veins of Jesus." -Spurgeon in "The Precious Blood of Jesus"

It was a beautiful weekend to be outside. Also, the weekend brought with it some anxiousness, about which I was reminded over and over to leave it at the feet of Jesus.

With that in mind, here's another little quote from Spurgeon:
"Be thou perfectly content to leave the result of thy prayer in His hands, Who knows what to give and how to give and when to give and what to withhold. So pleading, earnestly, importunately, yet mingling with it humility and resignation, thou shalt yet prevail." -Spurgeon in "Gethsemene"

peace out.